special Porms of Restiveness. 239 



horse's loins. Now, although this method of proceed 

 ing suggests itself very naturally, it is nevertheless all 

 wrong, as, indeed, must be quite clear to those readers 

 who have read the preceding pages with any degree of 

 attention ; for whether the difficulty has its seat in the 

 horse's hind quarters, or in the throat and neck, it is 

 sure to be aggravated in this way ; besides, that one can 

 seldom reckon upon having room enough to try this 

 experiment without encountering some obstacle or a 

 •iharp corner, that brings horse and rider down with a 

 smash. 



Let us take the case of a horse running away in a field 

 or open space, in the first instance, as being more easy 

 to deal with. Here the principal object must be to take 

 your horse off the straight line and on to a circle — at 

 first, of course, a wide one, but by degrees gradually 

 narrowing. On a circle one has room enough even for 

 the tiring process, seeing that it never ends, but the 

 thing is to know how to get and keep the horse on to it. 

 In the first place, then, it requires simply coolness and 

 self-possession sufficient to enable the rider to sit well 

 down in his saddle, bringing his legs well back and 

 keeping his body upright — the legs being required there 

 to regulate the action of the horse's hind legs in the 

 manner already described, whilst the upright position 

 of the body afibrds a basis from which the arms can 

 work. Next, instead of pulling a dead pull on both 

 reins alike, the rider must take intermittent pulls on the 

 one at the side he wishes to turn toward, gradually in- 

 creasing the strength of the pull, and then as gradually 

 relaxing to begin again ; holding the other rein merely 

 " counter," so that the pressure shall be exerted only 

 through the mouthpiece, whatever the bit may be, and 

 not through any other portion of it, which would be 

 useless. This intermittent pull on the rein must, how- 

 ever, be always accompanied by a similar pressure of 



